Month: February 2006

openbusiness.cc have a questionnaire for artists at the moment. One of the questions is “Have you ever used a CC work without incorporating it into your work? E.g. listened to CC licensed music”

Is this free-software-style concept of “use” of a cultural work a useful abstraction or a distortive import? Is it good to regard the consumption, propagation and creation of culture as “use”, or is there better terminology to be had?

NODE.London [Networked, Open, Distributed, Events. London] is committed tobuilding the infrastructure and raising the visibility of media artspractice in London. Working on an open, collaborative basis, NODE.Londonculminates, in its first year, in a month long season of media arts projectsacross London in March 2006.

The NODE.London Reader (surveying art, technologies and politics) projects acritical context around the Season of Media Arts in London March 2006 andprovides another discursive dimension to the events of October 2005’s OpenSeason. It engages debates in FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software),media arts and activism, collaborative practices and the political economyof cultural production in the present day. It includes essays and artistprojects from Sabeth Buchmann, Toni Prug, Armin Medosch, Simon Yuill, ChadMcCail, Critical Art Ensemble, Jo Walsh, Richard Barbrook, Michael Corris,Harwood, Agnese Trocchi, Matthew Fuller, Rasmus Fleischer and Palle Torsson,Brett Neilson and Ned Rossiter, Matteo Pasquinelli and Francis McKee. It isavailable at a range of NODE.London public events throughout March, and as aPOD (Print On Demand) through the website. Check the website for furtheroutlets as they become available, as well as news and additional texts.

I just got “Endtroducing” and “Zoolook” in the post. Zoolook I’ve heard before, Endtroduing is new (I was an UNKLE fan though). Add this to my Utah Saints records, some Negativland and DJ Sooky, and I’m having a sampletastic time at the moment trying to get my head back into a free art mode.

Music and art is a cliche, but it is my cliche (or possibly I am its).Dithering is the opposite of creative block, but in many ways even more destructive. At least with creative block you have to run with an idea when it comes up… 🙂

An individual should focus on their core competences to provide best value. This is their unique value proposition. If we look at the most prominent value adding individuals in business and the media, their most striking feature is their rudeness. Rudeness is therefore the core competence and unique value proposition of the people who add the most value to a business.

Many companies hire business consultants to add additional value. Since the best way they can add value is by being rude, the bland behaviour of current consultancy practice is clearly short-changing business. What is needed are incredibly rude individuals. The ruder the individual, the more value they are adding to the company.

I have therefore decided to become a business insultant. Companies can hire me to be rude and threatening to staff. Especially to management, who are best placed to pass on received value. I don’t think that twenty thousand dollars a day is too much to ask for such a vital service.

This is the first issue of Free Culture UK’s new fortnightly newsletter.Please pass this on to others who might be interested. To get your upcomingevents, hot news or event reviews in add them to the relevant wiki page.Feel free to make suggestions on how to improve this as well.

Remix Reading open media lab * What: Come and learn how to use arty free software, or show off your skillsto others, at our first open media lab. Just turn up with an open mind.* When: Saturday 4th March 2006, 10am-4pm* Where: Rising Sun Arts Centre, Reading* More information: http://www.remixreading.org/node/708

Remix Art Competition * What: A competition looking for the best visual remixes of Reading’s localarea and of a selection of local art. The eleven best pieces will be anexhibition in April. Non-locals may enter but 😉* When: Deadline is 6th April 2006.* Where: The show will be at Riverside Museum at Blake’s Lock, Reading.* More information: http://www.remixreading.org/node/714

Remix Reading held their first open media lab with just two PCs as part of therelaunch of a local arts centre. People with varied backgrounds showedinterest in free software and free culture.* http://tom.acrewoods.net/node/409

A ninja ambushes a pirate in a hail of shuriken. The pirate ducks behind a mast, blocking the shuriken, as his parrot flies at the ninja squawking obscenities.The ninja reaches for his nunchaks to dispatch the parrot, and the pirate takes a swing with his cutlass. But the moon suddenly shines across the deck from between two rocks off the coast of the island, and the ninja melts away into the fleeing shadows.